Here we find the true identity of Jesus as he passes all the trials that prove Jesus to be the Son of God, the True Messiah and the Kings of all kings:
5 Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;
and
‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
8 Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’” 11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. Matthew 4:1-11
Last time we looked at the baptism of Jesus and his identity was made public that indeed he was the Son of God. One also needs to remember that John was seen as a Prophet, the forerunner to the Messiah coming. It is John the Prophet who validated Jesus’ identity. It was time now for our Lord to go into the barren wilderness to be with the rocks and the snakes. It is unfortunate that Jesus’ testing times are seen as temptations. In English ‘temptation’ has negative connotations. The Greek certainly favours ‘test’. The meaning certainly does carry ‘Temptation’ as “to make someone want to have or do something, especially something that is unnecessary or wrong:” (From https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/tempt)
Satan was indeed trying to knock Jesus off the narrow track of God’s will. In that sense it is a temptation. Temptation as ‘a feeling to be naughty’ is not there. However, it is also a test. Our Lord and Saviour was keeping in step with the Father at every twist and turn. These were real tests. Notice that Satan only came to our Lord Jesus when he was at his weakest point physically.
We need to remember that Satan wants to destroy God’s work as he is an accuser. Satan was jealous of God and that is why he got kicked out of heaven in the first place. In the Fall, he led Adam and Eve up the garden path thinking that they too could be like God. This is spiritual warfare my friends. We need to take note of Job too when he lost his family, and everything was taken from him. In any warfare there are casualties, and it was time for John the Baptist to go to the other side and sleep with the beloved saints. A holy and righteous man who prepared the way for the true king of Israel, the Messiah, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Having done his work at the baptism we find straight after this story he would be arrested by those evil leaders under the control of Satan. Nothing can get in the way of God’s will. There would be other times that Satan would come to lure Jesus away from his path. The road was set God’s will would unfold no matter what happens, and the flood gates of salvation would break into this world through the death and resurrection of Christ.
We now turn our attention to the three tests that our Lord overcame. Jesus Passed the litmus test of devotion to his Father, Our Father who is in heaven…
In the book of Hebrews in our last series, we saw that as believers we ought to live by faith and trust. In this story we see a prime example of how faith works through the most difficult of situations from the life of Christ our Lord. In each of the tests Satan says, ‘If you are the Son of God’. Satan was attempting to feed a seed of unbelief into Jesus that he was not the Messiah, he was not the Son of God. He was attacking the human side of Jesus, looking for a crack. Notice that throughout this testing Jesus did no miracles and proved that he was the man of God, the Messiah.
TEST 1
“If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”
Jesus was hungry, he had not eaten for forty days or nights and then his first attack is to do with food! William Barclay said that in that hot desert there are rocks that look like small loves of bread. This was an attack on Jesus’ hunger pangs, but Jesus proved that faith is a lot stronger. Jesus always prayed, he always found quiet places to pray. This was Jesus’ The desert was a Temple of Prayer for the King of Kings. Jesus was being tested on his humanity and Satan was picking on the lowest points just like he did with Job. By asking Jesus to turn stones into bread, Satan was asking Jesus to do a divine act but if this happened it would be an act of disobedience to his heavenly Father. An act of disobedience from the Son of God would be a sin.
TEST 2
5 Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;
and
‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
In this attack Satan was attacking Jesus’ personal security and the Trinity itself. Here we see Satan attempting to Force God the Fathers hand to do something against the Divine Will by saving Jesus’ life. Jesus’ answer makes this very clear. In the story as a whole Satan is referred to as the tempter πειράζω, He was goading not only Jesus the Son of God but also his heavenly Father. When Jesus said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” The word here is ‘ἐκπειράζω’ (put to the test).
TEST 3
8 Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
Here we see the true nature of Satan, the jealous Satan. Satan had influence over the whole world, and he was wallowing in the delusion of his controllability to the extent that if Jesus would bow down to Satan and worship him. This is a cheap barter. God had commanded that every human is to keep the first command ‘Obeying and worshiping only God’. We need to remember that the Trinity was involved in the creation of the world and before sin entered everything was ‘good’. In a twisted way he was attacking the heart of God ‘the Love of God’ for his creatures. God became a man to save us. This is real love.
Satan offered a warped short cut to free people from their bondage to sin, in actuality, I don’t know what would have happened if Jesus caved into this request. Jesus again did not sin but stayed faithful to his Father.
The Aftermath (Satan leaves, angels look after Jesus and John the Prophet is imprisoned)
11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. Matthew 4:1-11
11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
At the end in this text Satan is referred to as διάβολος the ‘devil’ the slanderer. Angels came to look after Jesus because he was too physically weak after this test. Perhaps these tests were preparing him for the cross. Let us not think too much about Satan but rather let us focus our life of faith on prayer and getting closer to our Heavenly Father.
Postscript
12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; 13 and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.
In the book of Kings, we have the story of Elijah. In the story Elijah defeated by God’s hand the prophets of Baal. The ordeal brought him to a place in which he asked God that he would die. Elijah ‘was spent’:
Then Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” 1 Kings 19:14
John the Baptist was taken prisoner, Jesus’ cousin, and Jesus too ‘was spent’. A place of loneliness, feelings of abandonment… In English we may sometimes say ‘we had a desert like experience’ in which we cannot find or feel God close. Jesus experienced all these feelings of abandonment too. Our Lord did not give in, he found his sustenance through his prayer and devotional life.
Questions
Explain to yourself what the three tests were.
What aspects of Jesus’ humanity did Satan attack?
Looking at the example of Jesus; Why should we pray regularly?
Reflection
As believers and for that matter as human beings we will all face desert like experiences. We need to remember that if we truly trust in Christ, we are not alone. In prayer we get closer to God and by the Holy Spirit and through his Word Jesus our Lord we can find a place of refreshment and divine community. We are not alone, and the Holy Spirit is our Comforter.
This test proves beyond a shadow a doubt that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. He was revealed at the baptism, and he went though the litmus trials being proven to be the Son of God. Jesus defeated Satan’s taunting through Jesus’ human life, Although Jesus is also fully divine, he did not rely on his divinity but his humanity to defeat Satan the accuser. When God became a human being, he was obedient even to the cross and death on a cross. Yet three days later he came back to life. This story is a precursor to what Jesus would do in the future. So much pain and suffering but our Lord walked the walk of faith, and he did the talk of faith to the very end. As believers in Christ, we too will go through trials. Let us stay faithful to the end even as our Lord stayed faithful to the end.
Note: the image was taken from wikipeadia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Christ#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-Jesus_Tempted_in_the_Wilderness(J%C3%A9sus_tent%C3%A9_dans_le_d%C3%A9sert)-_James_Tissot-_overall.jpg
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